PAUL MASON

About me...

I'm a journalist, writer and documentary film-maker based in London.My upcoming book Clear Bright Future: A radical defence of the human being, will be published in May 2019.I write a weekly column for the New Statesman and contribute to Novara Media, TheGuardian, iNews, Le Monde Diplomatique and Freitag.I speak to audiences across the globe about the impact of networks and automation on politics and society. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook

My work

Everything I do is driven by the desire to tell stories about real people, with an unflinching gaze...

Biography

"I was born in Leigh, Lancashire, in 1960. My dad was a truck driver; my mum a teacher. I went to a Catholic grammar school, rebelled, became an atheist at 14, a Marxist at 16.*I went to Thornleigh Salesian College. Studied Music and Political Theory & Institutions at Sheffield University (1978-81). I didn't complete my PhD but Sheffield gave me an honorary Doctorate in 2014.*In the1980s I worked as a special needs teacher, a theatre musical director and university lecturer before switching to journalism in the early 1990s. I was deputy editor of Computer Weekly during the dotcom boom and joined BBC Newsnight in 2001.*​I worked as economics editor on Newsnight, switching to Channel 4 News in 2013. During fifteen years as a public service broadcaster I covered stories as varied as Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Occupy and the Arab Spring. Plus the Greek crisis, the Taksim Square revolt and the 2014 Gaza war. *I won the RTS Specialist Reporter Award in 2012 and was the inaugural winner of the Ellen Meiksins Wood prize in 2018.*I've written five non-fiction books and one novel. Three of my plays have been performed, including Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere, commissioned by BBC TWO at the Young Vic.*I produced the documentary series #ThisIsACoup for Field of Vision, with Theopi Skarlatos. I directed the short movie Astoria for the Young Vic. I was a consultant on the movie Jason Bourne. My radio work includes the two part documentary series Wagner: Power, Sex and Revolution.*In the past 24 months I've spoken to audiences in - among other places - Moscow, Warsaw, Zagreb, Amsterdam, Berlin, Athens, Vienna, Zagreb, Seoul, Sydney, Toronto and New York City.*I'm an antifascist, a humanist, a radical social democrat. *​I believe rapid automation and collaborative production can achieve a low-work, zero carbon economy - but only if we resist machine control of our politics, our behaviour and our lives.